


commonality

by mneiai



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Gore, Slow Burn, references to medical procedures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 17:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8023312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mneiai/pseuds/mneiai
Summary: Jack tries to reach Genji, somehow





	commonality

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd, most likely I'll rewrite the whole thing if I ever manage to finish.

When Jack found out about Genji, he was furious. He'd been told they'd brought in a possible informant and he'd been in bad shape, so of course Angela and the rest of medical had been the only ones to get their hands on him for a few days. But then that turned into a few weeks, Jack distracted with work and not noticing until at one point a peculiar expense report passed by his desk.

In the bowels of the medical wing, in a series of rooms housing experiments he had apparently never been informed of, was a young man who'd accidentally signed his life away. And it was all Jack could do not to lash out at everyone around them, because he knew exactly what that meant, he knew how it felt to be poked and prodded by uncaring doctors until finally they let him go and he didn't even feel like himself, anymore, didn't even feel human.

Once he was sure the doctors weren't necessary, he kicked them out, leaving just him and Genji in the room (and the cameras he disabled with the click of a device that Gabriel had gifted him and he always kept on him). 

"You won't be forced to stay here," he stated, gruffly. "You can leave when you're recovered, whenever you want. Or...you can stay, if that suits you."

Genji had just stared at him, suspicion clear. Jack couldn't blame him for that.

"I'm going to have...words...with the doctors who did this. I know it doesn't mean anything to you, but I'm not going to let this happen to anyone else."

"You're in charge here, why did it happen in the first place?" Genji's voice box had obviously taken some reconstruction, too, from the sound of it. Jack wondered if there was any part of him that hadn't needed repaired or replaced.

"It's a big operation. I know that's not much of an excuse, but I've got thousands of people in over a hundred facilities all over the world, trying to keep track of what any single group is doing when they don't want me to find out is...harder than you'd think."

He moved closer to the bed, keeping his eyes on Genji's face no matter how much he wanted to see what was done to the rest of him. "You also probably won't believe this, but...I've been in a similar situation. And if you need someone to talk to...I'm here."

He'd left after that, to yell at the scientists until Mercy was angry crying and screaming back. Not a one of them seemed to appreciate the impact they'd had on that man's life, too focused on the scientific achievements involved, and within the day Jack had assigned new people to all of them. Within the week, Jack had shuffled most of them to new facilities and assigned new doctors and researchers for each of their groups, ones straight from the military who would report anything suspicious to someone in charge.

\---

Genji stays. Jack suspects it's not so much because he wants to, but because he has no where else to go. It doesn't matter, Jack starts assigning him to missions, hoping he'll form bonds with other people and stop isolating himself. Sometimes it almost seems to work.

Work piles up and Jack stops being able to keep track of him, between paperwork, meetings, and kissing the UN's ass in preparation for the annual budget review. Seasons change and he almost forgets he still needs to be concerned, until new reports pass his desk--recklessness, endangering the mission, suggestions for psych evaluations. Genji was certainly making a name for himself.

Jack goes to find him as soon as he has the time, figuring that calling him to his office might create the wrong impression. He finds him in a far off corner, a rundown rec room that had just been a temporary solution before the one downstairs was finished. No one used it anymore, there were just a few sad couches and a worn pool table left.

And Genji, propped on one of those couches, browsing a tablet.

"Suicide by mission, huh?"

Genji startles, clearly not expecting that anyone would be able to sneak up on him (like everyone else, probably forgetting exactly what Jack had been involved with before becoming Strike Commander). Then he glares, setting his tablet to the side.

"What?"

"You're trying to get yourself killed out there. You're not the first person to try--wouldn't be the first person to succeed, either. But it seems a waste."

A snort. "A waste of all of the resources that went into 'rebuilding' me?"

"A waste of a good operative. And a man with a whole life ahead of him."

"What life? What man? I'm not that, anymore."

"You aren't or you think you aren't?" Jack countered. He sat on the far edge of the couch from Genji, so he wasn't looming over him as they spoke. "Times are changing, we've got all sorts here at Overwatch. Maybe the rest of the world isn't so accepting, yet...but who cares what they think?"

Genji looked away, hand groping for his mask. A security blanket, Jack figured, one he'd let him have if he needed it. "I am a freak. Not human, not Omnic. I would be accepted by neither."

Jack leaned closer, briefly setting his hand on Genji's arm where flesh and metal met. "You are accepted, Genji, by some people. Sometimes that's all any of us get."

Realizing this would take more than just a pep talk from his commander, Jack stood. "Like I said before, if you ever need someone to talk to...I'm here."

He was almost to the door when Genji's voice floated to him. "What did they do to you?" Jack turned back, a question on his face. "You said something similar was done to you?"

Taking a deep breath (pushing back the memories of needles/scalpels/cold faces/cold voices), he walked back over. This time when he sat, it was more like a slump, and he kept his eyes on his fingers laced between his knees.

"When I was around your age, I was volunteered for the Soldier Enhancement Program. They were trying to make better humans, better soldiers. Most...most of us didn't make it. Thought I wouldn't make it, either, at a few points. Spent three days not even able to move, my muscles melting before rebuilding. Lost more blood than I'd probably ever even made up to that point. I wanted to die, but I didn't, you know?" 

He glanced at Genji, saw a slow nod, understanding dawning in the eyes that were just visible through his mask. "For awhile, after, I felt...inhuman. Control came slowly, I'd bruise people I touched, I'd move too fast and it would...disturb people. Everything was a little too loud, everything smelled a little too strong...."

Shaking his head, Jack pulled his thoughts back together, refusing to dwell anymore. "Just know that...that I appreciate what it must have been like, must still be like, for you."

"Thank you, Commander," Genji whispered, watching him intensely. "For telling me."

"Jack, Genji. When it's not official business, feel free to call me Jack."


End file.
